To ask the Scottish Government whether it will review its goal of decarbonising transport, in light of its reported decision to increase fares and reduce services on Scotland’s railways. (S6O-03671)

We continue to decarbonise our transport with additional funding to support Scotland’s electric vehicle charging network, and to support confident switching to electric cars. We are on target to provide 6,000 EV chargers by 2026.

On rail, we recently electrified the Barrhead line, and we are electrifying the East Kilbride line, with the provision of a travel interchange. Only yesterday, I announced approval for the procurement of a replacement train fleet for our intercity services. We have just announced funding of £41.7 million for 252 low-emission buses.

Unfortunately, the peak fare removal trial was unsuccessful: just 0.1 per cent of car journeys moved to rail. I am hopeful that the current temporary timetable will return to a full timetable shortly, and I am pleased that rail unions are recommending to their members that they accept the latest pay offer from ScotRail.

As the member has heard, I have taken steps to introduce discounts of 20 per cent on annual season tickets, and permanent discounts of 20 per cent on flexipasses.

Transport is now Scotland’s biggest emitter of CO ₂ , yet rail passengers face a double whammy of fare hikes and cuts to more than 530 train services a day, compared with 2019. The United Kingdom Climate Change Committee has accused the Scottish Government of having no plan to reduce car kilometres, and the Government undermined the peak service trial with cuts to services and a lack of advertising. Does the cabinet secretary accept that the Government has dismantled travellers’ ability to make greener transport choices, is driving up costs on the railways and driving down services, and has, seemingly, abandoned its own goal of decarbonising our transport system?

I completely reject that analysis. I have talked about the increase in electric chargers. We have the most comprehensive electric charging system outside London, which is encouraging people to switch to electric vehicles. I also point out that, if we want to tackle car use, investing in buses would probably be our preference. We have limited choices. Do we invest in rail, where, as we know from the evaluation, the impact is more on middle to upper-income passengers and does not encourage more people to switch from car? Investment in other modes might be a better use of public funding. I am still committed to trying to make rail more attractive to more people. However, 75 per cent of passenger journeys on rail are already on electrified lines. We are improving what we are doing to support the bus fleet. That is a strong argument on decarbonisation. I am very pleased about that. I recently met the Climate Change Committee and discussed our proposals. The committee knows that we are proposing to bring forward a 20 per cent car reduction—

Thank you, cabinet secretary. We will need to have briefer responses.

We have a brief supplementary question from Beatrice Wishart.

It is not just railways that need decarbonising. Ageing ferries are Shetland’s biggest carbon emitters and many need to be replaced. Will the Scottish Government outline its policy on short subsea tunnels for Shetland, as such a project would be a contributor to the Scottish Government’s goal of decarbonising transport?

Beatrice Wishart will know that it is the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government who is working with the Shetland ferry replacement task force. I am open to work on both ferries and tunnels. The big infrastructure spend that would be required on tunnels needs innovation—and it needs independence. Having the capability as a state to do big infrastructure projects such as subsea tunnels—the Faroe Islands rely on the Danish state to underwrite their tunnels—is a positive argument for changing how we fund our public services.

Will the cabinet secretary offer examples of achievements in the decarbonisation of Scotland’s railway under the Scottish National Party and give an indication of what impact the new intercity fleet is anticipated to have in that regard?

The new intercity fleet has a requirement to reduce emissions. As Evelyn Tweed will know from her constituency, the Stirling-Dunblane-Alloa line has been electrified. We know about the Edinburgh to Glasgow line. As I have already indicated, the electrification of the Glasgow to Barrhead line was completed recently, and we are working on the East Kilbride line.